Bui Doi: Life Like Dust

Ricky Phan is a Vietnamese refugee and gang member who is now serving an 11-year sentence for armed robbery. Bui doi: Life Like Dust chronicles Ricky Phan's life through an interweaving of cinéma vérité footage - shot over a 3-year period prior to Ricky's arrest - and of a more poetic approach. It creates a subtle portrait of Ricky as he sits in prison trying to make sense of his difficult life. The film travels between Ricky's distant memories of home and his recent experiences: from his childhood on the streets of a war-weary Saigon to his days as a 'gangster' in the United States, and from a night-time escape from Vietnam to his present life in a California State prison. Ricky is bui doi: a life like dust. He can only dream of where he will drift to next. Produced and directed by Ahrin Mishan and Nick Rothenberg, Bui doi: Life Like Dust is the product of four years of work. After a year spent earning Ricky and the gang members' trust, the filmmakers began living with Ricky and his gang. As they began to document Ricky's life as a gang member, it became increasingly clear that to understand Ricky, one also had to understand his memories of Vietnam. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)